Leu Gardens and a sack of potatoes

Early this morning, I roused the ‘troop’ while Daddy slept on and attempted to sneak out of the house. In retrospect, I probably should have been completely ready to go before I got Vince up.

Instead I brushed my teeth and slapped on some make-up while Vincent whispered things like this “MUMMY, YOU BRUSHING YOUR TEETH??” “MUMMY, CAN YOU PUT MY UNDERWEAR ON?”

“Honey, shhhh, use your quiet voice. Daddy’s sleeping”

“OK MUMMY!! I”M BEING VERY QUIET!”

Surprisingly Daddy did not move during all of this, but I’m pretty sure he was faking it.

V and I dashed out to Dunkin Donuts to grab some muffins and coffee. And some chocolate milk. You know, because it’s Sunday and why not start the day on the proper kind of note. I still cannot get over the fact that there is a milk product out there called ‘TruMoo’ and that I bought it. (In my defense, Vince picked it out and it was the only milk product they sold) Seriously. TruMoo??!  America please. You are doing it to yourself. Just stop it already.

Anyways, my very nice in-laws came over and we headed to Leu Gardens nice and early. Today was promising to be rather hot and so the earlier the better.

What a beautiful walk. What gorgeous grounds… Huge Oak trees dripping with Spanish moss everywhere, green everywhere. Really sharp, crisp and slightly damp green. Meandering pathways leading who knows where. I think we managed about 1/2 of the grounds before V started demanding “Mummy pick me! Pick me Mummy!” and carrying a 40 lb sack of potatoes when hot and humid sucks.

Best part of the morning? One of the groundskeepers called Vince ‘Sir’ and invited him to come over and see her release some newly ‘hatched’ butterflies from a small containment area. (Do they hatch? That feels wrong when I type it) She very carefully explained about how they needed to pump blood into their wings before they were ready to fly and then she unlatched the butterfly house. About 5 beautiful monarchs swept out and fluttered past us. It was quite an exit. For a moment, I felt like I was somewhere else entirely…

I highly recommend hitting the gardens for a jaunt with the family. And it is in close proximity to a variety of nice places for lunch afterwards. Hit up their website for a list of upcoming events including Date Night (once a month) and a fun, spooky Halloween event scheduled for October 28… For Mums with a bit more free-time, there is Storytime too.

Mmmhmmm, I am loving me some gardens…. Go love them too!

xoxo a.m.

Garden date with the Toddler

“I am not steak! You can’t just order me!”, Melanie Griffin shouted at one of the Baldwin brothers.

Yes, it’s Saturday night, Edward is working and I am watching Working Girl on Netflix because I clearly have impeccable taste in movies. I should add that I started watching it last weekend and am finishing it as we speak.

It’s ok, this much awesome is hard for anyone to handle…

So I cut all my hair off, went to V’s soccer game (it was a 50/50 game day for him), took him to the library, bought new plants, rearranged my garden, contemplated baking cookies but elected instead to put Vince to bed early. Much better plan.

Tomorrow I am going to head to Leu Gardens with the Little Man. For you locals, did you know that the Gardens are celebrating it’s 50th birthday and are offering free admission on your birthday for the rest of the year? I kinda wish I had known about this in July. When it was my birthday.

Even if it isn’t your birthday, it’s still only $7 for adults and $2 for children (through to grades 12). Not too shabby and, lets face it, a lovely way to spend time in Orlando… I haven’t been since Edward and I were scouting wedding locations in 2004, post-hurricane. I’m rather excited.

And I’m taking the camera. Good times! Check out the gardens here and as the weather cools down, hit them up! A great place to take the toddler for a chilled out stroll…

 

xoxo a.m.

 

Nasal sprays and 3 year olds or My morning plans…

I got a little bit of extra Vince time today. Now while the reason wasn’t the best, the time was pretty darn great.

We hit up the allergist today and had a combo routine follow-up along with some skin testing for pollens and molds.  Vince has had chronic sinus issues ever since he was a wee guy. And in those early days, he was allergic to wheat and peanuts too. He is always somewhere in the ‘cycle of sick’. Good times. Lots of tissue.

Well, the skin testing didn’t really reveal anything. And he is WAY too young for intradermals. It seems as though his symptoms wax and wane with the pollen season and so we are throwing in a nasal spray to see how that works.

I am quite curious as to how a three year old and nasal spray are going to work together. Hopefully, the two will skip hand-in-hand merrily down the street instead going totally ‘fight-club’ on each others asses. Or bumbums.

I will find out tomorrow morning when we use it for the first time! Oh how fun!

I’ve got all sorts of fun things in the works for Vince and I in the upcoming weeks. Edward is working too much and we do our best to get out of his hair to give him some space to he can get stuff done.

Upcoming adventures are going to include Leu Gardens and OMA (Orlando Museum of Art). I have my eyes on a few other art museums in the vicinity as well.

For my locals, did you know that OMA has a preschool art program with monthly, interactive, awesome events to sign up for.

It desperately makes me wish I could call out sick so Vince and I could hit it up, but alas… I so very much want to attend next months ‘Fall Colours of Vincent Van Gogh’.

Gah. Jealous.

So if you have Fridays off, or don’t work and want something to do with the wee ones, please go. For my sake.

Check out OMA here. We will be heading there soon, it’s never too early to get your children involved in the Arts…

xoxo a.m.

Sometimes pregnancy sucks

Feeling like a bit of a slacker in the writing department over here and I am  completely blaming pregnancy on it. Pregnancy is a bitch.

This was an extremely planned baby. I had a time frame that I was looking for, conception-wise, in order to maximize my extremely crappy maternity leave and Edward’s summer vacation. Ideally, baby #2 would not enter daycare until they were 6 months old. Good plan, eh?

I factored in roughly how long it took me to get pregnant with Vince and we proceeded accordingly. Now the funny thing about hoping to be pregnant, is that once you are you start to wonder things  like ‘Wait. What was I thinking again?’ But that could be the hormones talking…

It’s something you want, want, want, want, want. And then suddenly, when you get it, and you start feeling like total toilet bowl… Well, it’s not that you regret it, more like you think ‘Oh good lord, what did I get myself into!’.

This second pregnancy is a total bitch. One that comes to work with a bad attitude and perfume that gives you a headache.

I’ve had a lot of headaches. And a lot of nausea. A LOT. More than I thought possible. I’ve been popping the (pregnancy sanctioned) pain-pills like they are going out of style. Which they better not be, since I’m getting low and need more soon.

Essentially that is what’s been going on down here in Orlando. Me, wallowing in misery, thinking things like “God, it’s probably a girl. And she’s sucking me dry.”

Oh, and Vince has been playing soccer. The last few practices were disastrous and the first game was AWFUL. Somehow though, things came around this past Saturday. He was bribed within an inch of his life by everyone (Mummy, Daddy, Coach) and it seemed to have no effect.

But something awesome happened out on the field. He got it. He just got it. And suddenly he was running. And kicking. And facing the wrong direction and running. But he wasn’t holding on to his coaches hand, or being carried around the field on someone’s hip. Or crying. Or screaming for me. Or climbing trees to get away from the field. Or many other things like that. That were all awful.

He was playing soccer and man was he having fun! And afterwards, during snacktime, he got a little trophy for being ‘The most improved player’. He was so proud. He kept asking me the rest of the day “Mummy, I kicked the ball. Are you so proud of me?”

Not only that, but he actually asked to go and have his hair cut. How ridiculous is that!

So here we are, post-soccer win and 16 1/2 weeks pregnant. Slightly less headachey, feeling a little round. And apparently today, a little less tolerant of bullshit than I thought. But don’t worry! I won’t tell you! My lack of filter is never a good thing, but even worse when I am pregnant, hormonal and annoyed.

I’ll keep you posted… 😉

xoxo a.m.

Sports and Art, Or how I am not a Soccer Mom

Yesterday heralded two big events in Vince’s young life. His very first soccer game and his very first exposure to ‘The Arts’. And for his pregnant Mummy? Perhaps one of the most exhausting days of my life. Including that time when I gave birth. This trumps that…

Soccer

Let’s start with what we’ve gotten ourselves into. Well, I guess the usual things that parents think when they sign their kids up for this kind of stuff. “Learning organized sports, interaction with other children, teamwork, exercise, etc” with the added bonus that we will meet some more parents in the neighbourhood (E and I are notoriously bad at that.), so total bonus.

The first practice was a wee bit of a disaster, but ended up ok. Second practice was this past Wednesday and was cut short by torrential downpour. Apparently it was more successful than the first one. Vince participated in group exercise and kicked the ball. Hurray! So based on this, I had high (perhaps too high) hopes for Saturday mornings first game.

And let me add it was everyone’s first game, all ten million different teams ranging from 3 to 16 years old. And their parents, chairs, coolers, dogs and siblings. It was like a circus. It was like being inducted into a whole new world. And Vince hated every single thing about it, including his new team shirt that we had to stuff him in while he flailed about and screamed that he wanted to go home. No going home for you, my dear!! We are going to force you to participate even if the coach has to carry you around!! Which she did!! You know, when she wasn’t forcing his leg to kick something with her hands.

At the 40 minute mark, he had kicked the ball twice and *gasp* ran unaided on the field. But stopped when he saw us watching. And then started crying again.

And then, thankfully, it was all over. And we went and got donuts. I am positive it will get better with time. It was overwhelming for me too, so I can just imagine what he thought.

The Arts

Post-donut and a clean change of clothes, Vince and I headed out on our adventure. On my numerous trips through Winter Park, I had noticed a very innocuous sign mentioning ‘museum’, once that was in such an odd place that it was easy to overlook. Especially if you drove past it 2 times a day on a really busy road.

So I checked it out online and  it sounded amazing. 3 acres of gardens full of sculptures, mostly those of the artist himself and some of other artists. On the edge of a lake, surrounded by old gorgeous houses.

OK, I thought, this might be the perfect place to take Vince. I’ve been wanting to start taking him places that were less ‘Disneyfied’ and more full of potential of even greater wonder and discovery. In a less commercial sort of way.

It was beautiful. We did not tour the historic home of the artist because I am not a crazy person. Vince only kind of destroyed one display in the gift shop, but in my defense it was left open and was full of little shiny trinkets.

“He didn’t touch anything, did he??”, asked the very earnest young woman manning the counter.

“No,” I immediately lied, “Just one of the display signs.” She doesn’t need to know that he squeezed that piece of jewelry, probably would give her a heart attack.

And then we hurried out of the gift shop and went into the gardens for a little wander. It was the type of place that had wild, lush gardens that immediately make you think you could do the same to your backyard with minimal effort. But in reality, it would take an army of gardeners. Statuary was perfectly placed amidst the green. The bamboo forest rustled invitingly. The lake gleamed where the garden ran into it. It was heavenly.

Vince tramped around with his stuffed Clifford dog, which added such a delightful element of whimsy to the whole scene that I laughed out-loud repeatedly…

We were only there for about 20 minutes, just about the right length of time for a three-year-old.

As we walked out to the parking lot, Vince announced “Mummy, that was a very nice walk.”

If you are living local and would like a very nice walk with your little ones, check out the Polasek Museum on Aloma (polasek.org). A truely lovely experience…

xoxo night night my lovlies

Soccer and toddlers

So many things to tell, it’s hard to know where to begin.

To start, I got to see the baby this week. You know, the one in my tummy? That’s HUGE according to Vincent? Yes, that little baby.

Since I am the ripe and severe old age of 35 and am now termed ‘high risk’, there’s all sorts of fun things for me to do at the hospital testing-wise. This past week I had the Nuchal Translucency test, which is a screening for Down’s syndrome. This is pretty standard testing and so I might be on the slight dramatic edge with my ‘old age’ and ‘high risk’ comments. Just ignore me, you know it’s part of the territory (and if you didn’t, consider yourself informed).

I can attest to the fact that there is ONLY ONE BABY IN THERE. That’s for you cheeky few that keep mentioning twins. However, even at this young an age, Baby M is already a handful… Refusing to cooperate with the ultra-sound tech, Baby M twisted and turned and flip-flopped so much that afterwards the physician came in and had a quick chat with me. “Things look fine, from what we can see of them…” is not the most inspiring statement to hear from a doctor. Additional blood work was required to finalize the screen.

“Typical”, I muttered, rubbing my enormous(ly small) belly, “Still in utero and causing problems already. Clear indicators that you are a ‘Melvin’.

So that was Monday. And from there, the week took a bit of a dive. Despite being in 2nd trimester, my body decided to have a flashback to when I was feeling like toilet bowl before and basically feel like shit again. Headaches, nausea etc etc etc… I won’t bore you with the details.

On the bright side, Vince started soccer this past week. There had been a bit of a lead up to this blessed event. Some conspiracy between a friend and I to have our boys on the same team. Much discussion of playing with Vince’s little friend. Much kicking of soccer balls in the park. We bought special soccer shorts and socks. And Vince was just thrilled with all of this…

He kicked the ball endlessly all summer. He stated repeatedly ” I play soccer with Nathan”. He loved the shorts and socks with shin guards. And as we approached the field he started hanging back. And then resisting. And then crying “I don’t want to go. I DON”T WANT TO!!”

The coaches were very patient and one of them pretty much carried him around the whole practice while Vince ignored his friend’s requests for high-fives and pretty much ignored everything everyone said to him at all. I was honestly wondering if this was a good plan, figuring it didn’t even matter since we’d just stick with it for the season when, as we were leaving, he announced “Mummy!!! I had fun!!!!!!”

Oh gosh, you did??! You could have fooled me! But good. Next practice is Wednesday and the first game is Saturday. I am pretty sure that next Saturday with be an awesome, awesome disorganized mess. And I am pretty excited about it.

Ok, I think that covers it…

xoxo a.m.